Dennis Dabney, LERA President Elect and Program Co-chairHarry Katz, LERA Past President and Program Co-chair

The Co-chairs and Program Committee welcome session proposals from the best and brightest. At least one participant in a session must be a LERA member, and one author on each paper must be a LERA member.

The LERA Program Committee invites proposals for stimulating and creative proposals related to engaging various, sometimes differing, stakeholders involved in employment relations with the end goal of enriching investors, managers, employees, policy makers, and unions. LERA’s program format offers fresh opportunities for thought leaders from all aspects of employment and industrial relations. LERA’s mission connects research, practice and policy, as well as stakeholders. Proposals connecting these three aspects are strongly encouraged. We encourage submissions from different disciplines, including, but not limited to:

Presentations may take a variety of forms: Symposia, panels, workshops, posters, skill-building, debates, roundtable discussions, etc. The number of tracks and lengths of sessions depends on the quantity and quality of proposals. To encourage thought diversity, participants may only present on the program once per role. Deadline: November 15, 2018.

AILR/LERA Best Papers Competition, Deadline: January 15, 2019 (paper proposals up to 3 pages), the special LERA Best Papers edition of the AILR Journal (complete papers up to 30 pages due the following April). Winning authors will be invited to present in special sessions at the meeting and may earn invitations to publish.

LERA Best Papers, Deadline: November 15, 2019 (paper abstract). Winners will present in a LERA Best Papers session and be invited to publish their paper in the LERA Proceedings and can compete for journal publication in the ILR Review.

LERA Best Posters, Deadline: November 15, 2019 (paper abstract). Winners will present in a LERA Best Posters session and be invited to publish an abstract in the LERA Proceedings.

Organizers are required to provide a session abstract and description, identify participants (confirmed or invited), and provide full contact information at the time of submission for all session participants. If you have questions about this Call for Proposals, contact: [email protected].

LERA's Annual Meeting program branched into new formats over the past several years. The long-appreciated format of research papers and discussants lay the foundation to new ways of organizing sessions. New formats include:

Facilitated panels of practitioners

Workshops hosted by one person

Hands-on case studies workshops, like the Arbitrator Panel

Point/Counter Point debates

The over-arching goal for the annual meeting program: Bring the labor and employment relations experts from all industries and perspectives and discuss how research-based practices improve work environments for everyone.

Expectations

Before submitting your proposal, consider these points:

What is today's date? Session and general paper/poster proposals are not accepted after November 15, 2018. Competition papers and must be submitted no later than December 15, 2018. (Still other paper competitions are due Jan. 15, 2019 - please see http://www.leraweb.org/deadlines for complete list.)

Get the contact information for ALL participants of your session before you start. LERA communicates with all participants at different stages before the annual meeting. Email addresses are especially crucial for communicating updates. Collect all the needed information in a document before starting the submission form.

Sessions are now 90 minutes long. This change from 120 minutes (2 hours) was very popular with attendees and encouraged brisk, on-point discussions allowing for more sessions.

All participants are expected to register (and pay) even if it is for one day. This requirement raises a one or two questions every year. LERA's mission focuses on being facilitators of open discussions on LER trends and practices. Our hope is the experts on all sessions will network and share throughout the day and meeting. All attendees benefit. From a practical point of view, with over 400 program participants, developing criteria for who pays and who doesn't is too challenging, and we price registration as low as possible so that as many people as possible can participate and be heard. The Executive Board understands the new session formats and an even more diverse audience means being flexible, which is why all program participants are eligible for the early-bird, member discount, whether they are a member or an early bird.

Don't let item #4 discourage you. Most completely understand the requirement. Be upfront when you invite the participants and the rationale for why this is LERA's tradition. Most will register because they will gain more than they give. The experts attending are the cream of labor issues and practice. Less than a handful mention any inconvenience. Consider sponsoring your panel's registration(s) through your organization and be recognized as an industry supporter of improving work. Contact Emily at LERA (217) 333-0072 or [email protected] if you are interested in recognition options.

LERA Program Committee guidelines will not allow any participant to act within a single session in more than one role (chair, panelist/presenter, discussant), and an individual cannot act twice in a given role throughout the entire program (all sessions at the conference). Someone can participate once as chair, once as panelist/presenter, and once as discussant. This is to ensure broad representation and participation of all LERA members and constituencies at the LERA Annual Meeting. There are a few exceptions to this rule to allow for competition winners, etc., but please use this as your guideline when crafting session proposals.